If you tuned in to Saturday Night Live this week, but only for the opening monologue and closing salutations, you’d surely believe that host Joseph Gordon-Levitt had led the troops through an electric, energetic, hour-and-a-half romp across the stage. See Gordon-Levitt dancing in a Magic Mike parody! See him doing pushups! Sporting that ever-present grin! Working the crowd! But the filling in this Joseph Gordon-Levitt sandwich was plain peanut butter. He drove at exactly the speed limit and was in bed by 11:45 p.m. – which is a shame, considering Saturday Night Live goes until 1 a.m. The highlights of last night’s episode came despite its host – starting with Mumford & Sons. The crowd-pleasing nü-Bluegrass group stood like pillars, side by side at the front of the stage, and intertwined their harmonies beautifully. Backed by a horn section for “I Will Wait,” they brought a terrific spirit to Studio 8H – a hoedown meets Dave Matthews … [Read more...] about Mumford & Sons Save the Day on ‘SNL’
Best shotgun fortnite save the world
Willie Nelson: Holy Man of the Honky Tonks
The desk man at the Greensboro, North Carolina, Holiday Inn shook his head when I asked for Willie Nelson. “Got no Willie Nelsons today.” He turned away officiously and resumed cleaning his fingernails with a Holiday Inn matchbook. He was about as encouraging as my cab driver had been: “You goin’ to see Willie Nelson? Man, he was a no-show last week. They had ta haul that Wet Willie in; he play instead. You see Willie Nelson, you tell him for me, ‘Man, you die fast in this town.’ “ I went back to the Holiday Inn desk man: “See here, I was really looking for the party of Fast Eddie and the Electric Japs.” “Well, goddamnit, why dincha say so.” He started thumbing through registration forms: “Lemme see, Mr. Eddie ain’t here yet, but Mr. Snake is, Mr. Poodie is, Mr. Beast is . . . “ “Okay, gimme Snake’s room number.” Poodie, who is Willie’s road manager, and Beast, his cook and … [Read more...] about Willie Nelson: Holy Man of the Honky Tonks
Good Old Grateful Dead
But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilise me and I can’t stand it. I been there before. – Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn The Dead didn’t get it going Wednesday night at Winterland, and that was too bad. The gig was a bail fund benefit for the People’s Park in Berkeley, and the giant ice-skating cavern was packed with heads. The whole park hassle – the benefit was for the 450 busted a few days before – had been a Berkeley political trip all the way down, but the issue was a good-timey park, so the crowd, though older and more radical than most San Francisco rock crowds, was a fine one in a good dancing mood, watery mouths waiting for the groove to come. The Airplane were on the bill too, so were Santana, the Act of Cups, Aum, and a righteous range of others; a San Francisco all-star … [Read more...] about Good Old Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
To avoid any possible disappointments for those who once had visions of saving the world through the music on Anthem of the Sun and any number of live performances, it might be nice to think of this album as an interlude for the Grateful Dead, a resting place where they’ve stopped over to brace themselves for the next series of atmospheric excursions. Despite some heartening knew-they-could-do-it-all-along moments, it has all the earmarks of such a betwixt and between record–produced live, mostly other people’s songs, filtered through with a kind of relaxed air that relies on renditions of old familiars and any number of debt-paying tributes. But if nothing else, Grateful Dead does make me a bit nostalgic for them golden days of yore, when not much of anything could be predicted from the group except that they would inevitably try through the course of each performance to take you some place you’d never been before. They would likely miss a good percentage of … [Read more...] about Grateful Dead
Gregg Allman, Southern Rock Pioneer, Dead at 69
Gregg Allman, the singer, musician and songwriter who played an essential role in the invention of Southern rock, has died at the age of 69 of complications from liver cancer. Allman’s rep confirmed to Rolling Stone that the artist died Saturday afternoon. Allman “passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Georgia,” a statement on the singer’s website read Saturday. “Gregg struggled with many health issues over the past several years. During that time, Gregg considered being on the road playing music with his brothers and solo band for his beloved fans, essential medicine for his soul. Playing music lifted him up and kept him going during the toughest of times.” “It’s too soon to properly process this,” Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts said in a statement. “I’m so glad I was able to have a couple good talks with him before he passed. In fact I was about to call him to check and see how he was … [Read more...] about Gregg Allman, Southern Rock Pioneer, Dead at 69